[Business Insider] Chrome vs. Firefox: memory usage

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Evjl's Rain

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Google Chrome's number-one competitor claims it fixes one of the biggest problems with Chrome — here's how to see if works for you

TLNR: chrome uses less memory than firefox on both MacOS and Windows


It's conventional wisdom that Google's Chrome web browser is often the culprit when your computer slows down.
Chrome is often known as a "memory hog," as it seems to always consume a big chunk of your computer's RAM. That can often lead to a pretty noticeable performance drop, even on high-end powerhouse PCs.
A quick RAM recap: It's your computer's short-term memory, where it keeps tabs on apps that you're using. In Chrome, more more open tabs and extensions means more RAM usage, which in turn means a hit to performance.
As recently as November 2017, Mozilla has emerged as a beacon of hope for web users, with a claim that its latest version of the Firefox web browser uses 30% less RAM than Chrome, at least on Windows. In theory, that means Firefox users should be able to run 30% more open tabs and extensions than Chrome before their computers slow down.
However, from my experience on both a Mac and Windows 10 machine, Firefox actually uses more RAM than Chrome, meaning it takes fewer tabs and windows before it starts digging into your performance. Mozilla says that it all comes down to your computer and your configuration.
"The dominant factors that are going to get different results have very much to do with whether it's Windows vs Mac. Certainly, we perform a lot better on Windows. And certainly hardware characteristics and that certain thing all comes into play to affect the outcome," Firefox Product Manager Peter Dolanjski, tells Business Insider.
To be fair, this might not be the case for everyone, so it's worth checking for yourself to see whether Firefox or Chrome uses up more RAM for your daily workflow.
Here's a semi-scientific method to see if Chrome or Firefox has higher performance on your machine, on both Mac and Windows 10:

For Mac users: (Keep reading for Windows 10)
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Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
1. Download and install Firefox.
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Business Insider
2. Go into a Guest Account on your Mac. See below for instructions.
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Business Insider
This step is important — the Guest Account is as close as you can get to having a brand-new Mac with nothing installed on it. It means that when you open up Chrome or Firefox, no other extensions or default homepages will load, meaning you get the "pure" experience. You'll need that for your testing purposes.
1. Click the Apple logo on the top left of your screen.
2. Click Log Out.
3. In the login screen, click Guest.
3. Open Chrome on its own, and open between 10 to 30 tabs with different websites in each tab. Make a note of the websites you load in each tab.
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Business Insider
4. Now, see how much RAM Chrome is using.
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Business Insider
You can see how much RAM an app is using in the Activity Monitor app on macOS.
1. Press and hold the Command button, then press the space bar.
2. Type Activity Monitor, and press Enter.
3. Click the Memory tab towards the top.
4. Find Chrome. You might need to scroll down in Activity Monitor to find your browser. It should have Chrome's logo.
5. Click on Chrome in Activity Monitor.
While Activity Monitor does show you how much RAM an app like your web browser uses, it doesn't show you everything in a neat little package. Follow the next step to get that an overall look at how much RAM your browser is using.
6. Click the small "i" button towards the top left of Activity Monitor.
7. Note the number for "Real memory."

chrome%20activity%20monitor%202.png

5. Now, close Chrome and open Firefox, and load the same tabs and website as you did with Chrome.
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Business Insider
6. Follow step 4 again to see how much RAM Firefox is using.
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Business Insider
You can compare how much RAM each browser used running the same amount of tabs and websites. That should give you an idea of which browser is using more — or less — RAM.
firefox%20activity%20monitor%202.png

In my case, Firefox is using significantly more "real" and "virtual" memory than Chrome does running the same 10 websites. I also tried this with 30 tabs, Firefox's "sweet spot," and found that it still used up more RAM than Chrome. But that may not be the case for you.
For Windows 10 users:
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Hollis Johnson/Tech Insider
Windows 10 doesn't have a "guest" mode like macOS does, so you'll have to do something a little differently than Mac users.
1. Get Chrome to its purest form — minus your profile, any extensions, or other things that could affect the result.
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Business Insider
In Google Chrome, click your account name on the top right, then click "Guest." A new guest account window will pop up. You'll need to close the other Chrome windows to get the purest form of Chrome.
This more pure Chrome won't have any of your extensions or preferences set, giving you a slightly more scientific baseline for your tests.
2. In this more pure form of Chrome, load up between 10 to 30 tabs with different websites in each tab.
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Business Insider
3. Check how much RAM Chrome uses.
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Business Insider
1. Press the Control, Alt, Delete buttons simultaneously and click Task Manager .
2. In the Task Manager window, find your browser and note the number in the Memory column.
4. Now, install Firefox, then close Chrome.
5. Load up the same number of tabs and same websites from your Chrome test.

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Business Insider
6. Perform step 3 again to see how much RAM Firefox uses for the same tabs and websites.
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Business Insider
Whatever browser has a higher number in the Memory column of Task Manager while running the same tabs and websites is more likely to slow down your computer.
On Windows, I found the same result as on macOS: Firefox uses more RAM than Chrome.
Whether this makes you switch to the other browser, that's up to you.
At least you know for sure which browser uses up more of your computer's RAM. If you find that your browser uses more RAM than the other, don't feel the need to switch. If you're comfortable with it, and it works for you most of the time, keep using it.
 

Moonhorse

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I have quantum + chrome installed

1 site open on both, and firefox is consuming half more ram
I wish i could use chrome as only browser, but the font is so light

While video rendering theyre pretty even, no idea why chrome hogs that much memory when running twitch.tv as example
 
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Evjl's Rain

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I have quantum + chrome installed

1 site open on both, and firefox is consuming half more ram
I wish i could use chrome as only browser, but the font is so light

While video rendering theyre pretty even, no idea why chrome hogs that much memory when running twitch.tv as example
you can install this extension, which help you to customize chrome's font width
the default setting is good enough
Font Rendering Enhancer

here are the screenshots, before vs. after
before.PNGafter.PNG
 
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Moonhorse

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Makes it more pleasant, but seems to render every font, so smaller text is getting bit blurry

Maybe i can adjust it on chrome settings, but alot better than default...thanks
 

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HarborFront

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Is there any up-datable Chromium based browser that's light on CPU/RAM, but doesn't send anything to Google?

~LDogg
Ungoogled Chromium will meet your need to NOT connect to Google

Update - Ungoogled Chromium

Download here

Downloads for ungoogled-chromium

Iridium still connects to Google since it uses Chromium. By default Chromium will connect to Google unless you ungoogled it.

For no-sync Chromium I believe the answer is from below

No more bookmark and password syncing for Chromium browser - Computers Deal Store
 
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Moonhorse

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Sunshine-boy

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Yes, you are right but do you know what Google do with your data?
I used Yandex for 2 years and then left it for chrome! but again started using Yandex(for its features), at least Yandex don't show me ads but google show! google say if you don't want ads then create an acc(so i can track you lol).
we know that Google let ppl read your Gmail:
Gmail app developers have been reading your emails
still didn't read anything bad about Yandex.
Yandex browser also sends telemetry(high) to Yandex servers.
Choose your spy:emoji_innocent:
 

Moonhorse

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Yes, you are right but do you know what Google do with your data?
I used Yandex for 2 years and then left it for chrome! but again started using Yandex(for its features), at least Yandex don't show me ads but google show! google say if you don't want ads then create an acc(so i can track you lol).
we know that Google let ppl read your Gmail:
Gmail app developers have been reading your emails
still didn't read anything bad about Yandex.
Yandex browser also sends telemetry(high) to Yandex servers.
Choose your spy:emoji_innocent:
I really liked yandex, might install it back for fun. Speed dial is sweet and its very flexible when it comes to customization. I think even my neightbours spy on me, soooo choices choices
 

tonibalas

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In my system yes FF uses more ram than Chromium.
But is not a problem for me even though i have only 4 gb of ram on my laptop.
The good thing about FF Quantum is that now uses less cpu than chromium ( not always ) and for me this is more important.
I do have to mention that Cent ( chromium browser ) has a memory optimization feature which helps to decrease ram usage.
FF to my knowledge doesn't has this kind of feature yet.
 

Evjl's Rain

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In my system yes FF uses more ram than Chromium.
But is not a problem for me even though i have only 4 gb of ram on my laptop.
The good thing about FF Quantum is that now uses less cpu than chromium ( not always ) and for me this is more important.
I do have to mention that Cent ( chromium browser ) has a memory optimization feature which helps to decrease ram usage.
FF to my knowledge doesn't has this kind of feature yet.
any browser with memory optimization seems to use the same method (besides suspending tabs)
we can replicate that by using a mem. trimmer like cleanmem, firemin
I have seen my previous browser (slimjet) trimming memory every 10 or 15mins which worked identically to cleanmem/firemin
you can use scheduled task to do that

but having a mem. trimmer integrated into the browser OOTB is a really welcome feature :emoji_clap:
 

HarborFront

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In my system yes FF uses more ram than Chromium.
But is not a problem for me even though i have only 4 gb of ram on my laptop.
The good thing about FF Quantum is that now uses less cpu than chromium ( not always ) and for me this is more important.
I do have to mention that Cent ( chromium browser ) has a memory optimization feature which helps to decrease ram usage.
FF to my knowledge doesn't has this kind of feature yet.
Does this tip helps in saving memory in FF?

How to Reduce Firefox Memory Consumption - Hongkiat

or some other tips here

5 Tips To Reduce Firefox Memory and Cache Usage

Reducing memory usage - Firefox - MozillaZine Knowledge Base
 
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tonibalas

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@Evjl's Rain i have used Firemin in the past and it does a good job reducing ram usage of FF.
But all this 3rd party tools are increasing cpu usage which i don't want.
I would prefer a memory optimization feature inside FF like the one Cent has so you can avoid increased cpu usage.
 

HarborFront

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@Evjl's Rain i have used Firemin in the past and it does a good job reducing ram usage of FF.
But all this 3rd party tools are increasing cpu usage which i don't want.
I would prefer a memory optimization feature inside FF like the one Cent has so you can avoid increased cpu usage.
You can also use extensions like Dormancy which 'Retires' tabs that have gone unused for a while, freeing up that memory. It then restores the tabs to life when accessed.

Dormancy – Add-ons for Firefox

or

Auto Tab Discard which use native tab discard method to automatically reduce memory usage of inactive tabs.

Auto Tab Discard – Add-ons for Firefox
 
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